Mayo Moriyama 11:00 pm on February 18, 2018

New Regional WordCamp in Asia?

During WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Bangkok last weekend, we had a casual chat about the idea of new regional WordCamp in Asia. After honest discussion on what we need to do, who will do it with how much work, we agreed that we should start with a discovery phase. We need to know what resources we have and what work (and how much) will be required.

Background

As far as I remember, the original idea popped up when some of us went to WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. 2015. It inspired us hugely how we can encourage WordPress folks in our neighborhood. Since then we have tried to reach out to local communities by traveling, using SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. etc and now we can see the number of WordCamps increased from 5 in 2015 to 19 in 2017. Seeing the rise and growth of the community activity, we believe that we can start working on this, from a discovery stage.

One suggestion was running a trial event such as video conference before an in-person conference. It was suggested by Andrea when some of us attended to WordPress Community Summit in Paris. It sounds like a good opportunity to form working team and know each other, and by going online, we can avoid the problems that we, as the WordCamp organizer have never faced with; language barrier, currency, visa, and political situations.

On the other hand, there were negative voices for video conference as well:

Compared to actual WordCamps, an online event will be more difficult to ask folks to contribute their time because it sounds less exciting, missing one of the most exciting things, meeting at the venue.
If we go online, we can avoid the problems around travel, currency, visa issues but it will not solve them.
Given the number of WordCamp organizers in the region, what is the reason we need to go through a training period?

We also agreed that discussing whether we go online or offline is too early for us without knowing what it really is. We need to understand the event and ourselves to move forward. Similarly, we are not ready to discuss the venue, leads, contents, budgets, etc.

Reference about Regional WordCamps:

Conclusion

We agreed to start from a discovery phase. We suggest that this stage includes but is not limited to:

Defining the requirements for a regional WordCamp.
Discover and describe the difficulties that we discussed in the past, more in depth. Language barriers, currency, travel visas, political landscape, and maybe there are more.
Defining the criteria for selection of working group members.
Learning from WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. and WCUS organizing team.
Asking for access to the past WCEU and WCUS documents.
And eventually leading to the creation of the working group

Next Step

Decide date of discovery meeting
Find a facilitator of the meetings.
Asking for the access to the past regional WordCamps documents.

Jon Brown 4:24 am on February 19, 2018

As an outsider that spends a fair bit of time in Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Singapore and Japan) it does seem like Asia has reached critical mass to the point a regional WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. would be a huge success.

I’ve seen firsthand dozens of WordPressers in Asia traveling between camps to learn from and teach each other.

I’ve also heard first hand the stories of citizens from several
Asian countries having difficulties with both costs and visas to travel to either WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. (most difficult) or WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. (still a challenge). It seems a local to the region and more accessible WordCamp would be of great benefit to WordPress professionals and enthusiasts in Asia.

Finally, while I respect Andrea’s suggestion, I’ve never heard of a successful “video/virtual” WordCamp. Such an event would hold no interest for me (although I’m admittedly not really the target). By point of reference, I’ve watched WP Sessions, an excellent live online event multiple times, but don’t recall a single other people that participated alongside me. I think that such a “virtual/video” event negates most of the value derived from WordCamps which is the inter-regional networking and relationship building… Not just the “hallway” track, but the chance meetings, sparked friendships and shared passion for WordPress that only happens face to face.
- Josepha 8:53 pm on February 22, 2018
  
  I don’t think anyone who was in the discussion is questioning whether it’s a good idea or not, so much as wanting to get an idea of how much time/effort it will take. Once that’s clear, then it’s a question of how to make it possible. The vote of confidence that it’s a good idea is appreciated.
digitalchild 6:22 am on February 19, 2018

Living in Vietnam and being the co-organiser of WordPress Saigon I would be very interested in being apart of this group. We already face some of these challenges with our local meet ups.

I too don’t see much benefit in a video / virtual setup due to infrastructure concerns and also the physical networking is a big reason I participate in these WordCamps.
alibasheer 8:47 am on February 19, 2018

I am interested to be part of this WCA, I am organizing WordPress Beirut, Lebanon for 1 year.
The video conference doesn’t look exciting for me, as the number 1 benefit (at least for me) from meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and WordCamps is the networking part, this will not happen in the video conference.
M Asif Rahman 5:06 am on February 20, 2018

This is long going effort. We internally created a Group for All Asian Organizer, back in 2016, and we started promoting local meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., WordCamps, anyway we can. We want to take this forward.

We are definitely ready to take it forward. As I agree we have lots to learn from WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. and WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event., but we should never forget how many things are not similar at all. When we talk about Visa difficulties, I sometimes find it funny, because we are comparing with Visa process in US & Europe with Asian countries, does not matter if it happens in Thailand, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka or Japan, for any American or Europian or even other Asia countries, its surely easy to get visa.

Call me short-sighted, but whenever I see this discussion, and someone pointing it out, it’s a long shot, will take at least 2-3 years to happen, I feel down, so like many other people involved in WordPress community in Asia. You will never have everything ready before you take initiative before you commit, and let people around, believe it’s happening.

Lastly, understanding all related matters, I still think we are going too slow, and too precaution regarding this.
Naoko Takano 7:15 am on February 22, 2018

Let’s think through why we want to have a regional WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. in Asia, and how it can help our communities.

The handbook says:

The goal of a Regional WordCamp is to celebrate, represent, and grow local WordPress communities in the affected region. A primary goal for the WordPress Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. is to help support the creation and growth of WordPress meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups and annual WordCamps in as many cities as possible in the world. Regional WordCamps work toward that goal by connecting people who weren’t already active in their local WordPress community and inspiring attendees to start communities in their hometowns.

I can see how a regional WordCamp can achieve these goals. I’ve seen so many people get inspired to start organizing their own meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and WordCamps after visiting one & seeing the benefit of creating a place for users to gather (I was one of them too!).

Also, we all understand the importance of meeting face-to-face. Open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. contribution and community involvement get accelerated when people meet and work together at a contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/..

There’s a concern that a large regional WC can be only attended by those who can afford to travel or whose company is supportive (+ can get a valid visa). While this is very true, if more meetups and WCs get organized as a result of a regional WC, everyone benefits even they aren’t able to travel. Plus, if a regional WC in Asia continues every year in a different city, more people have a chance to attend one in their own country.

That’s my thoughts! I welcome hearing counter-arguments. Discovery meeting sounds like a good idea as a next step.
Josepha 9:37 pm on February 22, 2018

I want to clear up a few misconceptions I’m seeing in the comments.

This particular post isn’t looking at the benefits to attendees (those are things that most people across the program agree on). The primary purpose of this post, and its goal of creating a working group, is to figure out how to set the potential organizers up for success.

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that the Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. is not trying to slow anything down or prevent a global regional event from happening. No one from WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each., or any of its deputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook., would volunteer some other local community’s time and effort on their behalf. Especially not without offering support that is needed for them to succeed.

In this case, the support that the team identified with/for me last weekend is clearer knowledge of the level of effort to organize one of these events. Once there, they can then work on getting a team together and begin the organization process.

As I shared with the team, we will support their work when they are ready to commit the time and effort. As always, this isn’t about creating roadblocks. It’s about doing our best to keep everyone happy, healthy, and safe along their journey with us.
Josepha 9:38 pm on February 22, 2018

A general note on the WordSesh/online conference idea, too.

It was suggested that a WordSesh-type event would be a good midpoint to get an idea of how much time it would take, and also learn about cross-cultural collaboration using a low-risk event option. Low-risk in this case should read “basically zero budget”.
Ulrich 3:41 am on February 23, 2018

There should be regular meetings to put together a proposal. Something like the cities have had to do for applying to host WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe and US.

A p2 and slackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel for the organisation of WC Asia would provide a central place for these discussions.

I had two questions:
What is the working group?
Why do you need to find a facilitator for the meetings?
Naoko Takano 10:21 pm on February 23, 2018

Thanks for clarifying, @chanthaboune !
In my comment above I was trying to advocate for an offline event because it felt like holding an online event still seemed to be a suggested next step for a regional WC to happen. It would be nice if the original WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. organizers could share (as a part of the discovery process) if preceding an online event would have contributed to a better event. And anything else they actually did or wished to have done in preparation.

Creating a P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. and SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel is a good idea.
- Siobhan 2:20 pm on February 26, 2018
  
  Hello 🙂
  It would be nice if the original WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. organizers could share (as a part of the discovery process) if preceding an online event would have contributed to a better event.
  
  In the case of WCEU, I don’t think a preceding online event would have contributed to a better event.
  
  However, that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t help in this case. Part of the reason WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe was so successful was that we were a group of friends who had an idea and pushed it forward. The fact that we were already friends and had already spent a lot of time together, and worked on a few projects, meant that we were already a team. I knew pretty much everyone on the team before we got started, and the few people I didn’t know were friends with others on the team.
  
  I’m not sure if this is the case with WordCamp Asia, and if it is not then organising an online event would give the team an opportunity to form relationships and get to know one another before actually organising a huge event together.
  
  That said, you don’t need to organise an online event to achieve that. You could do anything so long as its a project that means that relationships are formed – a hack project, community project, a contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/., even working on something in person. It’ll also give you insight into who is good at what and what they should be responsible for when it comes to the actual event. Setting up a good group dynamic before launching into an international event will go a long way to setting you up for success.
  And anything else they actually did or wished to have done in preparation.
  
  Loads! I’d need to have a think about it though – it was a long time ago. I’m happy to catch up about it some time.
- Andrea Middleton 3:38 pm on February 26, 2018
  
  I think it’s also worth mentioning that that group of friends were all contributors to the WordPress project, on teams like Docs, Community, Polyglots, etc — and had all organized WordCamps before (correct me if I’m wrong on that @siobhan). So there was already a knowledge base for both event organizing within the project as well as a knowledge base of what individual skills that everyone brought to the project.
  
  I think the most compelling reason to do an online event would be to create those relationships and learn the skills/styles/strengths of the folks interested in organizing an in-person event. But I agree with @siobhan that another kind of project would probably build these relationships and assess strengths as well. 🙂
- Remkus de Vries 8:59 am on February 27, 2018
  
  So, the goal for WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe was diverse, but I suppose key element were about:
  – kickstarting WordPress communities in countries where there hardly was one,
  – unite scattered WordPress communities where there were some and lastly
  – have everyone in the European area involved with WordPress realize we actually already were a community.
  
  I’m not sure having an offline event would’ve helped with that goal per se, but I suppose, like @siobhan said, it wouldn’t have hurt either.
Junko Nukaga 11:07 am on February 24, 2018

I think this is a very attractive attempt.
I think that WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. in a large area has the effect of promoting the local community.
Asia has language problems, migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. and visa issues, but there are also a lot of things that feedback localities by the challenge of doing regional WordCamp.
And above all, I am looking forward to it myself.
For that, I think it’s better to try offline events.
joeguilmette 7:16 am on February 26, 2018

I feel compelled to share how impressed I am both with the organizers of WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Bangkok, and at the incredible turnout for both of their recent WordCamps. I spent a lot of great time with local Thai WordPressers, but also folks from all over Asia – Japan, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, etc.

I have great confidence that an offline WordCamp Asia will have a huge, positive influence on the community here.
Francesca Marano 9:23 pm on July 14, 2019

WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia will happen in 2020, stay tuned!